13th Anniversary: As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen
Thirteen years ago today, on March 9, 2009, True Father first published in Korean his best-selling autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen — the most intimate look into his personal life and decades-long journey toward building the global Unification movement of faith and peace as one family under God.
By 2010, an English translation of the book was ready and being distributed, with many U.S. members acquiring 430 copies to share with their family, friends, and other contacts. More than 144,000 copies were distributed in Las Vegas alone. True Father described his autobiography as an “honest and candid account... expressing about 80 percent of [my] life.”
Today, as we remember the many great achievements of True Parents and their revolutionary teachings, we also remember True Father’s personal stories chronicled in his autobiography of heartache, tragedy, faith and inspiration, courage, triumph, and unparalleled success. In his autobiography, True Father poured out his innermost thoughts and feelings — and his deepest love for God and humanity as a peace-loving global citizen.
Excerpt from As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, Chapter Two, A River of Heart Flows with Tears:
As I grew older and more mature, I became preoccupied with the question, “What will I be when I grow up?” I enjoyed observing and studying nature, so I gave some thought to becoming a scientist. However, I changed my mind after I saw the tragedy of how people were plundered by the Japanese colonial authorities. They suffered so much that they could not even feed themselves. It didn’t seem that becoming a scientist, even if it led to my winning a Nobel Prize, would be a way for me to wipe away the tears of suffering people.
I wanted to become a person who could take away the tears that flowed from people’s eyes and the sorrow that was in their hearts. When I was lying in the forest listening to the songs of the birds, I would think, “The world needs to be made as warm and tender as those songs. I should become someone who makes people’s lives as fragrant as flowers.” I didn’t know what career I should pursue to accomplish that, but I became convinced that I should be a person who could give happiness to people...
The suffering of one family seemed connected to the suffering of the nation and of the world. I was increasingly troubled to see the wretched situation of the Korean people under Japan’s increasingly tyrannical rule. People didn’t have enough to eat. They were sometimes forced to take grass, tree bark, and whatever else they could find, and boil these for food. There seemed to be no end to wars around the world...
What was clear was that I had received a special mission from Heaven. It was such a huge and tremendous responsibility. I shuddered in fear to think that I might not be able to handle it on my own. I clung to prayer even more than before, in an attempt to quiet my confused heart. But even this had no effect. No matter how much I tried, I could not free myself for even a moment from the memory of having met Jesus...
My encounter with Jesus changed my life completely. His sorrowful expression was etched into my heart as if it had been branded there, and I could not think of anything else. From that day on, I immersed myself completely in the Word of God... I embraced new words of truth that Jesus was giving me directly and let myself be completely captivated by God. I began to live an entirely different life... Even now, I insist uncompromisingly on sacrificing my life to live for God’s love and nothing else.
You can get your copy of True Father’s autobiography here.